What a week in the flooded Jakarta! Even Pope Benedict XVI is alerted and has offered his prayers to the victims of floods in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Pope said “no one should go without the necessary aid.”

As we heard, every 5 years, there is a huge flood in Jakarta. Last year, we were lucky. This year the flood has affected a total of 74 urban wards in 31 sub-districts in Jakarta’s five municipalities. More than 97,000 houses as well as some of Jakarta’s main roadways were flooded.

Let’s see the Indonesia ordinary people affected by the Jakarta Flood in our Jakarta Snapshoots.

We have done an interview with Ana from Stumbleabroad recently. Stumbleabroad is a fabulous blog about expat life in Jakarta. Ana has a regular column on Friday about real people living and breathing in Jakarta, both Expats and Jakartarans.

You might want to head over to Stumbleabroad to meet some of our own Jakarta people? To read our original interview, click here.

Or you can simply read below. Hope you like it.

{Fabulous Jakartan Friday}

Sarah, the Stylish Aussie Mom

Tell me more, tell me more

1. First, tell us a little bit about you. What’s your background? Where did you grow up? How long have you been living in Jakarta for? What does your family look like?

We are Anna (aka Miss D), John and Sarah from Sydney, Australia. We are an expat family of three. We lived in Melbourne where Sarah got her MBA in Monash University and John worked in a multi-national company.

When Miss D was a baby, our family moved to Sydney and has been living there ever since. We actually fell in love with Sydney because of its beautiful beaches and warmer weather. Sydney is also closer to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, which are our favorite holiday destinations during winter time.

One day, after we move back to Australia, we might move back to Melbourne when we retire to join our extended families there.

2. Is Indonesia your first post abroad? What’s the hardest thing about being an expat in Indonesia? What did you struggle with the most?
Indonesia is our first post abroad, although we have traveled often in both of our working lives. We never thought we were ever going to visit Jakarta as a tourist spot back in Australia. Bali is much more well- known in Australia. Many of our friends have visited Bali before, not Jakarta.

The hardest thing for us as expats in Indonesia is being away from family and friends. Other than that the language barrier, the traffic jam, and the pollution all take their tolls.

We raised 4 beautiful chickens back in Sydney. Leaving them behind to come to Jakarta is one of the hardest things for us, especially Miss D. You can read our chicken story here.

Some days, on a gloomy rainy day like today, we wonder why we are here, in a strange city in Jakarta. But, most days, we try to live a normal, balanced life.

Do you want to see our emotional feeling about the city of Jakarta? Have a read of this poem we wrote: our city.

3.I love your blog Midnight Visitor! Why did you decide to start a blog? What’s the best thing that has come from blogging?

Good morning, as promised, here is the article we wrote for ExpatArrivals website about Indonesia education and school system. To read the article on ExpatArrival, click here.

But as our dear readers, of course you get to read it from our own midnightvisitor website.

What do you think? Hope it can bring you a somewhat complete picture about schools in Jakarta and we will be very delighted if it helps you in your school selection process if you are an upcoming expat to our great city of Jakarta.

Education and Schools in Jakarta

For Indonesians, compulsory education lasts for a total of nine years. This includes six years of primary school education, known as Sekolah Dasar, which begins when a child is six or seven. This is followed by three years of secondary school education, SMP or Sekolah Menengah Pertama, which begins at the age of 12 or 13.

After that students have a choice to either enrol in high school, SMA or Sekolah Menengah Ata, for another three years. Alternativley, some children choose to find a job and start work.

In general, students who have graduated from SMA will go directly to university, Universitas. However, due to either financial constraints or academic stress, some students drop out and opt for pre-university or associate degrees.

Within the Indonesian local compulsory education system, there are two kinds of schools: national schools and national plus schools.

National schools in Indonesia

In national schools the teaching language used is Indonesian. Every subject is taught in the Indonesian language by Indonesian teachers. Even English itself is taught by Indonesian teachers who speak English.

No dialects such as Javanese are offered in any of the schools in Indonesia, at least not in big cities like Jakarta.

These local languages are still used in remote parts of the country. The language barrier is one of the main reasons why expat children do not attend national schools in Indonesia.

National plus schools in Indonesia

National plus schools in Indonesia offer some international curricula and classes are generally in English rather than Indonesian.

The majority of these schools cater for Indonesian students with expatriate students often making up only a small proportion of the school’s student population. They do however accept expat children and are a good alternative for expats who work for companies that do not cover education fees.

International schools in Indonesia

Most expats in Indonesia send their children to international schools. This is the best option for those working for a company that makes a provision for school fees within an expat employment package.

There are many good international schools in Jakarta. The most popular international schools include Jakarta International School (JIS), the Australian International School (AIS) and the British International School (BIS).

“By six months of age, most babies sleep through the night, awakening their mothers only about once per week,” said Temple psychology professor and study co-author Marsha Weinraub. “However, not all children follow this pattern of development.”

With a curious soul like ours, we have to dig out the dirt now that we have started this Hugh Hefner married Crystal business. Why did Crystal Harris called off the marriage to Hugh Hefner the first time? Don’t you want to know?

Here a look here:

(CBS) Crystal Harris says she called off her wedding to Hugh Hefner, which was to take place on Saturday, because the Playboy founder’s lifestyle wasn’t for her.

“Hef’s lifestyle isn’t the most normal lifestyle,” Harris, 25, told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show Wednesday. “This isn’t the lifestyle for me, multiple girls around all the time, the Playboy lifestyle. I don’t know. I just wanted to be true to myself.”

“For a while, I’ve been having second thoughts about everything,” she said. “It all happened so fast, and they were going to air a show on it. It was all happening too fast for me.”

It was initially reported that Harris, a Playboy Playmate who appeared with Hefner on E!’s “The Girls Next Door,” called off the wedding after the couple had a “nasty argument” on the phone, but she told Seacrest that was untrue.

“It was mutual between Hef and I,” Harris explained. “There was no fight, we sat down and we talked about it.”

“We both agreed that it wasn’t the best idea to get married. He kind of told me that he was doing this wedding for me because he thought that’s what I wanted,” she said, later adding. “We were both kind of relieved.”

Interesting, Crystal called off the wedding because Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle. Isn’t the lifestyle what she wanted in the first place? And how long has been Hugh leading this lifestyle? As a playmate herself, sure Crystal knew this very well?

We love gifts and Christmas is the busiest time of the year for the Gift Business. So do your kids love your Christmas gifts this year?

We were thinking of doing a 2012 year in review as it is the most proper way to end the old year and begin the new. Somehow, we end up creating this gifting problem cartoon. Hope you like it!

Modern day gifting can be a tricky business.But don’t worry, in the olden days, Christmas gifting also can be very, very dramatic. Why not have a look at this short story?

We will do a new column on the new Midnightvisitor site (Yep, the new site is still in progress, we haven’t forgotten about it :D). We will put up a new short story every weekend. Hope you like them. We certainly love to read in the D house.

BTW, have you got your Gift list ready on Amazon yet? We are preparing for next year’s Christmas gifts already, haha. 😀

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young.”

The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling–something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”

Down rippled the brown cascade.

“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation–as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value–the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends–a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do–oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?”

At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two–and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again–you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice– what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”

“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”

Jim looked about the room curiously.

“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you–sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year–what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.”

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs–the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims–just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”

The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

No more lonely nights! Hugh Hefner is officially off the market, again.

86 years old Hugh Hefner married 26 years old Crystal during the new year holiday. The marriage was called off once half a years ago in June last year. What was going through Crystal’s mind at that time?

Is this true love?

Not sure.

Guess what, China has a very similar story back in 2005. The then 82 years old Dr. Yang Zhen Ning ( A Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1957) married his 28 years old wife.

It had caused a huge social debate that year and is one of the hottest press in China even today.

Good news is Dr. Yang and his wife are still happily married until now. Eight long years, marriage brings longevity for sure. We will see if Hugh can do the same. 😀

Oh, BTW, it rained again today. When can the rain go away? Here’s another raining song. Hope you like it.

Rain Is Falling

Early in the morning,
The sun was up and the sky was very blue,
Without a warning,
As I looked out,my thoughts returned to you
A noise in the city made the children run,
And hide themselves away,
And thunder boomed and lightning filled the sky.

Looking from this window,
A thousand rivers running past my door
Standing on an island,looking for someone
Upon the shore,
I can see it very clearly nothing’s really changed,
Then lightning strikes across an empty sky,

Chorus

Ooh-the rain is falling,
Ooh-the rain is falling,
Ooh-the rain is falling,
Will it wash away the lonely tears,

With their brand new time transporter,
They’ll think maybe I fought to get away,
But with all their great inventions,
And all their good intentions here I stay,
Down on the corner where the sun had shone,
The people gathered ’round,
Then scattered as the raindrops hit the ground,

Miss D is an awesome kid. She does lots of amazing things that surprise us. She can sing, she can draw, she can write; she is a great student at school, she is quite athletic as well. We love her with all our heart.

Miss D is awesome, but she is still only 12 years old. Her most asked question during the day are more like these:

What’s for dinner?

What’s for dessert?

Can I have that game?

When can I have a sleepover at …?

All my friends like that toy/game, why can’t I have it?

You get the picture. 😀

So when Miss D asked us a thoughtful question during our China trip, we listened and think you might want to know as well.

We were on a bus in Hangzhou to the West Lake. It was a week day at around 11ish, so the bus was half empty. The bus had just stopped at a stop, and a few elderly Chinese ladies boarded the bus. The bus drove on, and that’s when Miss D asked:

‘Is China a developed country, mum?’

Gee, Mrs D was surprised. Miss D had never asked anything like this in her entire 12 years life. Mrs D was about to answer Miss D, when Mr D asked:

‘What do you think, Honey?’

Mrs D was curious to know as well, actually, what Mrs D wanted to know was: why did Miss D ask such a question?

You know, Miss D is not a dumb kid. She was pretty good at social studies at school. And sure at 12 years old, the school must have taught Miss D a few things about countries already. China is one of the biggest countries in the world. Miss D sure should know by now what country China is, shouldn’t she?

Why don’t you ask your 12 years old the question and see if they can answer straight away. 😀

Anyways, while Mrs D’s mind was running with all these thoughts, Miss D gave out her answer. Being a logical kid, her answer was like this:

‘Well, China looks like a developed country to me, but isn’t China a developing country?’

What? Why? Now Mrs D couldn’t help to ask Miss D:

‘You’re right, honey, China is a developing country. But why do you think China is a developed country?’

Want to know how Miss D replied, please come back next Monday, and we will publish her answer.

Meanwhile, why don’t you ask your kid a few questions about the countries you have traveled to, and see what their answers are. The kids might surprise you as well.

It is hard to believe we were still in China yesterday, watching snow falls and we are now back in Jakarta and watching the rain again.

It has been a great holiday, and the weather is on our side. Miss D has finally seen the first real snow fall in her life! She is beyond excited. Stay tuned for some snow pictures we took very soon.

Beside the snow, we have many other stories to tell. Gosh, where should we start? Below are a few stories we are going to write about our China trip.

Miss D’s Awasome Question about China

5 Peculiar Things about China

Rice Bubble Making the Chinese Way

First Snow

Taobao (Treasure Hunt) on the biggest China Online Shopping Website

Interested? These are only a tip of what we will write about our China trip.

Be patient, we will need some time to write quality articles. 😀

For now, we will just put up a good, old nursery rhyme about the rain. The raining season in Jakarta this year seems quite different from last year. It rained almost everyday. Dark skies, and bad traffic, how long will this last? Rain, please go away…

Midnight Visitor

Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever read. Following him down the musty corridor of the gloomy French hotel where Ausable had a room, Fowler felt let down. It was a small room, on the sixth and top floor, and scarcely a setting for a romantic adventure.Ausable was, for one thing, fat. Very fat. And then there was his accent. Though he spoke French and German passably, he had never altogether lost the American accent he had brought to Paris from Boston twenty years ago.“You are disappointed,” Ausable said wheezily over his shoulder.

“You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionage and danger. You wished to meet me because you are a writer, young and romantic. You envisioned mysterious figures in the night, the crack of pistols, drugs in the wine.”

“Instead, you have spent a dull evening in a French music hall with a sloppy fat man who, instead of having messages slipped into his hand by dark-eyed beauties, gets only a prosaic telephone call making an appointment in his room. You have been bored!” The fat man chuckled to himself as he unlocked the door of his room and stood aside to let his frustrated guest enter.

“You are disillusioned,” Ausable told him. “But take cheer, my young friend. Presently you will see a paper, a quite important paper for which several men and women have risked their lives, come to me.

Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. In that thought is drama, is there not?”

As he spoke, Ausable closed the door behind him. Then he switched on the light.

And as the light came on, Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day. For halfway across the room, a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.

Ausable blinked a few times.

“Max,” he wheezed, “you gave me quite a start. I thought you were in Berlin. What are you doing here in my room?”

Max was slender, a little less than tall, with features that suggested slightly the crafty, pointed countenance of a fox. There was about him — aside from the gun — nothing especially menacing.

“The report,” he murmured. “The report that is being brought to you tonight concerning some new missiles. I thought I would take it from you. It will be safer in my hands than in yours.”

Ausable moved to an armchair and sat down heavily. “I’m going to raise the devil with the management this time, and you can bet on it,” he said grimly. “This is the second time in a month that somebody has got into my room through that nuisance of a balcony!” Fowler’s eyes went to the single window of the room. It was an ordinary window, against which now the night was pressing blackly.

“Balcony?” Max said, with a rising inflection. “No, a passkey. I did not know about the balcony. It might have saved me some trouble had I known.”

“It’s not my balcony,” Ausable said with extreme irritation. “It belongs to the next apartment.” He glanced explanatorily at Fowler. “You see,” he said, “this room used to be part of a large unit, and the next room — through that door there — used to be the living room. It had the balcony, which extends under my window now. You can get onto it from the empty room two doors down — and somebody did, last month. The management promised to block it off. But they haven’t.”

Max glanced at Fowler, who was standing stiffly not far from Ausable, and waved the gun with a commanding gesture. “Please sit down,” he said. “We have a wait of half an hour, I think.”

“Thirty-one minutes,” Ausable said moodily. “The appointment was for twelve-thirty. I wish I knew how you learned about the report, Max.”

The little spy smiled evilly. “And we wish we knew how your people got the report. But no harm has been done. I will get it back tonight. What is that? Who is at the door?”

Fowler jumped at the sudden knocking at the door. Ausable just smiled. “That will be the police,” he said. “I thought that such an important paper as the one we are waiting for should have a little extra protection. I told them to check on me to make sure everything was all right.”

Max bit his lip nervously. The knocking was repeated.

“What will you do now, Max?” Ausable asked. “If I do not answer the door, they will enter anyway. The door is unlocked. And they will not hesitate to shoot.”

Max’s face was black with anger as he backed swiftly towards the window. He swung a leg over the sill. “Send them away!” he warned. “I will wait on the balcony. Send them away or I’ll shoot and take my chances!”

The knocking at the door became louder and a voice was raised.

“Mr Ausable! Mr Ausable!”

Keeping his body twisted so that his gun still covered the fat man and his guest, the man at the window grasped the frame with his free hand to support himself. Then he swung his other leg up and over the window-sill.

The doorknob turned. Swiftly Max pushed with his left hand to free himself from the sill and drop to the balcony. And then, as he dropped, he screamed once, shrilly.

The door opened and a waiter stood there with a tray, a bottle and two glasses. “Here is the drink you ordered for when you returned,” he said, and set the tray on the table, deftly uncorked the bottle, and left the room.

We haven’t shopped for Mr. D for a long time now. Actually we haven’t shopped for Mr. D since our last failed pants shopping trip. He hates shopping. We hate shopping for him. 😀

But, don’t worry. Organized as Mrs. D is, she has even got a Christmas Gift Guide ready for Mr. D. Actually it is the perfect Christmas Gift Guide for any man. Why not have a look?

We have the usual toilette, perfume, tie, undies, and casual T shirts for Mr. D. He needs them everyday anyway. A good excuse to go shopping.

If we have a bit more cash, we will buy him a nice pair of new shoes. Good quality shoes which can last another 10 years, we hope. OK, make it 5 years. Ten years is a bit ambitious, even for us.

We might even buy him a nice piece of jacket. Not that we need it everyday here in Jakarta. Just that it feels nice to wear a jacket every now and then. Besides, we might travel and it might be chilly where we go. So a nice but causal jacket will be good for Mr. D.

But what Mr. D really, really need is a great leather sofa. Mr. D is a night owl and can work really late till the wee hours. A great leather sofa will make his night peaceful and comfortable. A great investment, don’t you think? A hard working man deserve a great comfortable place.

OK, a great sofa might be great. But that’s only Mrs. D’s wish upon Mr. D. If Mr. D had a choice, guess what he really, really want? How about a Harley-Davidson? If he had a choice, we think him might opt for a good old Harley. 😀

Too bad, that’s not allowed. Not when we are in Jakarta anyway. Maybe, just maybe, we will get one for Mr. D, if we are back to Sydney. And if, he has worked really hard for it. 😀

This is a picture we took in PIM (Pondok Indah Shopping Mall) in South Jakarta. Look at the three hats the magician and his helpers are wearing, and their outfits. It can be in any other cities in the world, can’t it?

Oh, we have created a brand new blog for A Hat Day because it is focused only on Hats!!!

Maybe next year we will try this table if we are back to Sydney? We always have a nice table setting during our Christmas season back home. Here in Jakarta with only 6 cubic meters of shipping, we have to make do with a simpler and rented table. 😀

Anyways, we will be traveling this Christmas, guess the Christmas table can wait…

From the food and recipes we put out on Midnightvisitor, you would agree that we don’t believe in diets or restricting ourselves in the D house. We love our chocolates, cakes, and anything yummy. But don’t get us wrong, we do believe in a balanced diet (or to a broader extend – a balanced life) so to speak.

We are so looking forward to Christmas, and one of our priorities for this Christmas is to eat all the decadent treats we crave! Think chocolate brownies, chocolate mousse, chocolate cookies, chocolate fudges…

Oh, my, our mouths are watering the moment we write this. How about a Jakarta Chocolate Roadshow for today? We can’t wait.

Of course, we will do some high impact cardio, a hot yoga and a soothing swim after this. That’s the secret why we can keep on eating this Christmas. 😀

Jakarta is not a sleepy fishing village any more. Those years are long gone. Jakarta is in fact a big metropolitan city today, and it has all the Chocolates in the world.

This week, the D’s camera is going to show case some of the best Chocolates that Jakarta is on offer.

Enjoy.

So many chocolate cakes, which one to pick? So hard, yet so tempting…

How about checking out the brochures first? That’ll get us going.

Cheese cake we bought.

Smaller but better chocolate cheese cake!

We love our cheese cakes. And a chocolate cheese cake? That’s even better. This is the same cheese cake as we bought for Miss D. The only difference is it is topped with chocolate filling and laced with white meringue.

And the price? It is RP11,500 for the smallest 20x10cm cake, and runs up to RP1,220,000 for the biggest 60x40cm cake. (1USD = RP9,600)

How did we miss that the last time we went shopping? We love the topping! One more reason to go back.

Another great chocolate cake, tiny but great. We always enjoy dark chocolate. The bitterness keeps us want more. Enjoy a great cuppa after this. We will add some coco on top, just for you.

How about some chocolate ice-cream? Actually, any kind of ice-cream will be fine for us. After all, it is always hot in Jakarta, and ice-cream is so popular here. We won’t mind a truck load of it, in fact.

Wait, we not only have chocolate ice-creams in Jakarta, we also have chocolate cup cakes. They are smaller but taste as great as their bigger chocolate buddies. Why not give them a go? You might like them, too. Besides, the sales girls in Jakarta are super nice. We don’t want to disappoint them, do we?

You won’t think that we would leave you empty handed after all these, would you? We can’t do that. Chocolate is for everyone, so here it goes, the shops where we normally get our chocolates and cakes in Jakarta. You’ll find them at the end of this article.

Still, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We guarantee that Jakarta has much more chocolates on offer: in fancy restaurants, hotels, cake shops, chocolate shops…

If you really, really want more, you have to come over and see for yourself. And God knows, we might even put up a few more of our favorite chocolate shows before Christmas. After all, this is the holiday season, what more excuses do we need to enjoy Chocolate?

We have only got till next Tuesday before the world is going to end. Scary stuff. Angles, arrows, guns? Which one to pick? Who to believe? Does anyone know the Mayas? How reliable these ancient people are?

Whatever will happen, we are going to stop blogging and spend all the remaining precious time with our family and loved ones. Actually we will be on a flight to Sydney as soon as Mr. D finishes his work on Friday. 😀

How about you? Is there anything on your mind that you must do before the end of the world?

We know, we have just published our Christmas wishes this week. But we can’t wait any longer, we are gonna publish the D’s Bucket List right now, until it’s too late.

So here is D’s bucket list:

Skating in Antarctic with dogs

Safari in Africa

Check out the Caribbeans

Go to New York and a few other metropolitan cities

Diving at Ko Phi Phi

Meet the Pharaohs in Egypt

……………………………………………………………..

OK, this list is already too long, hope you have got the drill by now…

We have got an around the world flight to catch.

To complete these trips in less than a week, aren’t we ambitious?!

Last but not least, while we are on the airplane, we will eat all the chocolate we can possibly eat. No time to be wasted. Not until next Tuesday.

The Royal baby name game has officially started. People are making royal memorial plates, cups, mugs to celebrate.

So which baby name will you pick? No, not for the royal baby. Our baby’s name, of course.

We will use the next 9 months to pick a Royal baby name!

For now, we have to pick a name for our baby: our new website, that is.

OK, we might just stick to the midnightvisitor name, but upon checking, it’s been taken.

How can that be?

We can have as many David as we like in real life, why can’t we have the same midnightvisitor name in blog sphere. So not fair!

That’s OK. We are not going to complain. Naming is our specialty, too. If you don’t know this already. We have beautiful names for our pets: our chickens, turtle, and cat. Miss D loves to name her toys. All her toys have their very own names: bluey, shinny, angle, Brenda, etc, etc…

Even funnier, if you are lucky enough to know us in person, we might have named you, too. You see, when we know 8 Davids in our house, it is very hard to tell who is who. So being creative as we are, if you are lucky enough to be the David we know, your new name might be:

……………………………………………………….

Errr…….. Actually, we will pick another name to show you how we do this naming game. We certainly don’t want to be offensive, and who knows, the David we are talking about might just be reading right now. 😀

How about Dumbledor, yeh, Dumbledor will do. Everyone knows Dumbledor, yet lucky enough, we have no real life friends named that yet. So here we go:

In the D house, if you are the Dumbledor we know, we might call you a million things:

An older Dumbledor – ‘Old man’.

A Dumbledor who likes fruits – ‘monkey’.

A tall Dumbledor? ‘bamboo’ sounds like a fitting name. 😀

For a Dumbledor who eats a lot, we name you ‘tiger’. Sometimes, we might call you HT if we happen to see you in action. Don’t know what HT is, it is short for Hungry Tiger, of course.

If Dumbledor was a woman (this is only a game, alright?), her names can be:

A Dumbledor who married a banker, that’s easy, her new name is the ‘banker’s wife’.

A Dumbledor who is from Spain – ‘that Spanish Girl’.

A Dumbledor who enjoys a bit of laugh like us? How does ‘Joker’ sound? Actually, we don’t like that. Joker is not a good name for a girl.

We like chocolate, so we named one of the Indonesia beauty queen after that when we saw her on TV. Indonesians are dark colored, but very beautiful, too. Chocolate is a compliment in the D house, OK?

Anyways, the new names are mostly for fun, sometimes can be a bit over the top, but nothing offensive here in the D House. After all we have to be good role models for Miss D.

So what about our new website name? Well, we have come up with a few different ones. We are still brainstorming. Stay tuned.

Oh, want to see the David in the D house? We actually have one.

Meet our very own David D. Miss D fell in love with this wooden doll in Ikea and had to have it. Miss D loves to draw and she wants to draw this doll as soon as she saw him.

And guess what name she picked for him?

David D.

So here is our David in the D house. We love him and he is a pretty good dancer.

Mrs. D got really frustrated in the car stuck in the traffic on her way home after a lovely lunch in Pacific Place (a fancy shopping mall in central Jakarta). All the happiness from earlier of the day was slowly winding away.

She’s got a kid to take out of school and she was running late. There was nothing she can do, not even with a driver who knows all the short-cuts in South Jakarta. She was rather anxious. She really didn’t want to be late.

Sigh…

Until she saw this man:

A rubbish man braving the wind and rain, treading in the flood, and just kept on going.

What’s going through his mind? Was he frustrated like us?

We would never know.

Unlike Paris Hilton, Mrs. D would never stop her car and talk to a total stranger. Not in circumstances like this. Everyone has his own dignity. Who are we to judge? After all, it was not a street beggar she had seen.

Anyway, Mrs. D was much calmer and relaxed after this. No way she was going to turn herself into a banker’s wife, that’s Mr. D’s job. 😀

To have more fun this Christmas, Mrs. D has a wish. Only one wish, she’s not a greedy person. After all, Mr. D’s wallet is her wallet, too. We are a traditional family, ‘AA share’ has no place in the D house (well, Mr. D might think otherwise, why don’t you ask him?). 😀

So what is Mrs. D’s Christmas wish? Well, Mrs. D’s wish is the D’s wish anyway. It’s something better for the D family for sure. Actually, you might benefit from her wish as well.

Is it ‘World Peace’, Mama?

See, we have already put a puzzled look on your face. Haha.

OK, ‘world peace’ can be her Christmas wish, too, only for you.

Second wish, alright? We all entitle to three wishes when the genie asks, don’t we?

Back to Mrs. D’s first Christmas wish: all Mrs. D wants this Christmas is (music and drum rolls here):

A Brand New Website!

Disappointed? Woman, why can’t you be grand, be worldly? ‘World Peace’ is a much better choice!

Bad luck. Mrs. D’s only wish this Christmas is a new website, with good reasons, too. And being an obedient husband Mr. D is, he will be our Santa Claus this year.

So, yeah, you will see a brand new website after this Christmas, when we are back from our holidays. It’ll take a while for us to figure out the technicalities, but you will see.

What is your Christmas wish this year? How about ‘Peace on earth’ or IPad III? We think those are much better choices.

Sorry to deviate from our normal Jakarta news. But what news can be greater than a Royal baby news this Christmas?! To say we are excited is an understatement. Any baby gets us excited, let alone a Royal baby! This is the best Christmas ever. Let’s celebrate!

Congratulations Kate and Will! Well done!

Now that the Royal baby is on the way, what about baby names? Oh, we love naming babies. The next 9 months will be spent on picking the best baby name for our Royal baby. Free entertainment. 😀

What about baby clothing? We love to buy cute clothes for new born babies. A batik dress for a royal baby girl, or a batik shirt for a royal baby boy? Oh, imaginations, ours are running wild…

For now, we will stick to our Christmas red. A red dress if we have a princess.

What if we have a prince? Well, we will have to do a prince outfit soon, don’t we? Stay tuned. 😀

How about you? Any baby names you like? Any baby clothes you gonna design? Good luck. See who’s the winner in 9 months time.

You might be surprised to see that we have a Red background for our blog and wonder if you have come to the right one. Yes, you have. This is still the MidnightVisitor you have been reading all those years.

But, we have changed our colour scheme from a crispy white background, to the Christmas holiday red. Put a bit colour on this holiday season. Why not?

Actually, initially we only wanted to sprinkle some snow flakes on our blog. We love snow flakes and BTW here is our official reveal for last week’s MidnightVisitor Quiz:

Each snow flake has 6 points and Santa Claus lives in lapland all his life.

Now back to the Christmas red. When we did that (sprinkle the snow flakes, of course), we found it didn’t work because of the white background we have.

What the hack, why not paint the town (aka our blog) red this Christmas? That’s exactly what we did and that’s why you have seen our Red Christmas background today. Hope you like it.

This red Christmas background will be kept forever, since we are the 20% Christmas advocates. Will you still coming back after the Christmas just because we do this? We hope so.

Don’t worry, we couldn’t do that to you. We still love our crispy white background. After all it has been with us since the beginning through all those tougher days. How about keep the Red theme till January? After that we will switch back to our white background.

Obviously, we went to the wrong shopping mall last week. To do Jakarta justice, this week we will show you the real Christmas celebration in our beloved city Jakarta.

Not only will we show you all the Santa Claus in Jakarta, we will also show you some ‘heavenly beauty’, just to make up the misunderstanding of our part from last week’s Hello Kitty roadshow.

Enjoy.

To start with, we will show you the grandest Santa Claus and sleigh we have ever seen in a shopping mall:

Like it?

Have a look from the back. Santa is flying in the sky with silver reindeers. Mind you this shopping mall is 6 floors tall. Look at those tiny people on the ground floor.

This Santa Claus and silver reindeers sleigh is at least 5 meters long. It is huge, built with great efforts and is magnificent indeed. We have never seen anything like this in a shopping mall back in Sydney. Have you seen anything like this in your city? We would like to hear.

Jakarta not only has the grandest Santa Sleigh, we also have white Christmas snowy castles.

Plus Christmas gift shop. Snowman, Christmas trees, baubles, candy canes, ornaments. You name it, we have it right here. With a coconut tree standing by. 😀

Christmas in Sogo, a fancy department store.

Now that we have proven that we do have Santa Claus in Jakarta. We will start our real topic for today. How about some more Heavenly Beauty? And a blue one would be nice?

This is called Hijab. It is a everyday wear for Muslin women and is a fashion icon in its own right.

Back in Sydney, girls are interested in topics such as ‘How to wear scarves in a hundred ways’ in winter time. In Jakarta, we have ‘How to wear a Hijab in 100 ways’, all year round. As a matter of fact, we have a Hijaber community here just to do that.

Do you have a scarf community in your city? Maybe we should start our very own right now.

Want to see some real life hijaber in action? Jakarta has plenty.

A single lady entering the shopping mall. Love the beige colour she is wearing. Very on the trend, slim, modern and beautiful. Wait, did we just say ‘modern’? Actually, it does have a very modern feeling to it, if you have seen it yourself in person.

Another young lady. This time in grey outfit and matching hijab. The girls in Jakarta sure knows their colours.

A mum buying a toy for her little boy. And that’s the aunt in the far right corner wearing a white hijab. Young and pretty. The best age.

Obviously, older women wear hijab more often. This couple looks lovely. Great colour match. How long have they been married?

Here we go again. Can anyone tell us how this photo of ours have anything to do with the term:

Well, obviously, Google thinks this picture has everything to do with the term ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’ . In fact, this photo not only has everything to do with ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’, it is also one of the best photos for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’.

Why?

Because out of hundreds of millions of photos for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’ , this photo of ours is ranked on the 5th page on Google image search. That’s like ranking the top 0.00001% out of Google pictures for this search term.

How cool is that!

Actually this is not our best photo yet, check the other photo of ours.

Look familiar? Well, this one has ranked on Google image search page No. 2 for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’. Wow, now that Google mentioned it, she sure does look like a medical assistant to us. Cosplay in bright day light in a crowded Jakarta shopping mall. Is that even legal? What do you think?

We are really impressed by the genius behind the Google search team by now. They must have held double PhD degrees for what they are doing.Don’t believe your eyes? Why not Google yourself. 😀

Next time if you want to cheat on Google, just throw in some random pictures and put a nice title to it. You might hit your jackpot too. Google is an easier lover, he will be contented with just that.

Oh, we also like the photo below for our beloved search term ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’. This one ranks very well on Google image search. You can find it on Google search page 2, very close to our second photo above.

We love wine and candles. The Christmas season won’t be complete without our two dearest friends. How about a glittered candle to light up the darkest winter nights?

This red and gold glittered candle is our kind of Christmas decoration for the Christmas dinner party. It is beautiful, magnificent for the eyes and is super quick and easy to make. This one is for those romantic at heart. Why not have some fun this Christmas and glitter away!

Materials needed:

Glitters: any colors, but we love gold colour

Candles: any candle will do, but to create that Christmas feeling, why not use red? Red is Christmas.

Brush

Masking tape (preferably two sizes to get the wanted effect, but one size will be just fine)

Glue or spray adhesive

Use masking tape to cover the area of candles you don’t want to have glitters on. (Use two different sized masking tape to create different gaps on the candles.)

Use the brush to apply a nice even layer of glue onto the non masked candle areas.

Sprinkle the glitter onto the candle, turn the candle as you go.

Make sure the coat of glitter is nice and heavy

Shake the candle gently so that any non adhered glitters are off

Repeat until the entire candle is coated.

Let the candle dry for about 20 minutes on the paper plate

Enjoy your Christmas dinner with your very own red and gold glittered candle this Christmas. Have fun.

One of the benefits of living in Jakarta is there are many factory outlets here. Every now and then, we will go there and do some treasure hunt. It is fun.

You would think we have paid the original prices for our winter clothes below:

Hack no, we won’t buy any winter clothes without checking out the many Jakarta factory outlets.

As we have said before, shopping in the factory outlets can be a hit and miss. There are lots of fake products in these factory outlets. So have we bought the authentic products?

Check out the actual hoodies and see the labels, textures, and feelings. What do you think?

Are these genuine branded garments or not? We think they are. Our guess is these are current season genuine export clothes. For whatever reason, they are left behind and are now sold in the many factory outlets in Jakarta.

The chickens that saved Western civilization were discovered, according to legend, by the side of a road in Greece in the first decade of the fifth century B.C. The Athenian general Themistocles, on his way to confront the invading Persian forces, stopped to watch two cocks fighting and summoned his troops, saying: “Behold, these do not fight for their household gods, for the monuments of their ancestors, for glory, for liberty or the safety of their children, but only because one will not give way to the other.” The tale does not describe what happened to the loser, nor explain why the soldiers found this display of instinctive aggression inspirational rather than pointless and depressing. But history records that the Greeks, thus heartened, went on to repel the invaders, preserving the civilization that today honors those same creatures by breading, frying and dipping them into one’s choice of sauce. The descendants of those roosters might well think—if they were capable of such profound thought—that their ancient forebears have a lot to answer for.

We have just reinforced that MidnightVisitor is a family blog, and we are quite sensible in not showing any not kids friendly stuff here. The next thing we know, we have landed ourselves in hot water, again.

How does this happen?

Well, after a day’s hard work, we are enjoying our peace and quiet and doing a bit maintenance on our blog. Guess what we found? Some strangers have landed on our blog via this:

If you not already know, this is a screen shoot of who’s who in the blog sphere. Basically it tells you how people find you using what search terms. Amazingly, someone found us through the term ‘best hot woman in a swimming pool’, among our Christmas lyrics and Christmas ornament and crafts.

How did this happen?

Being curious souls like us, we frantically put the term on Google. We love Google, right? Google sure will not fail us.

Guess we are wrong, yet again.

We searched and searched, but among the millions of pictures shown up, we cannot find anything that belongs to us.

To love, or not to love, that is the question. Now we are utterly destroyed. Our hearts are broken. If we can’t trust Google, who else can we trust?!

Since we are heart broken, we need to see a doctor. But, it’s already too late here in Jakarta. What to do?

We love jokes and we believe laughter is the best medicine. So instead of finding our ‘best hot woman in the swimming pool’, we have found someone else’s hot lady: in the swimming pool and naked, via our great trusty friend Google:

Don’t believe your eyes? Why not Google yourself? Put in our title for this article, and see how you fare. Google might as well surprise you. You might have some pool side fun along the way. You never know…

We all know our Jingle Bells by now. Guess who is coming to town this Christmas? The town, of course, is our beloved Jakarta!

We have prepared a nice roadshow for you on another topic this week for D’s Camera. But our plan is not relevant any more as soon as we see this:

Yep. Obviously, this Christmas Hello Kitty is coming to town, and we’ll paint the city red PINK?

Not happy? Nor is our snowman here. Snowman and Hello Kitty? An innovation idea. Does it work?

Look at the snowman’s face, hint, hint, hint…

To make this Christmas the best ever in Jakarta, the marketing team has worked hard and even throw in a few goodies for us. How about a lucky dip by our very own reindeer? That would cheer us up in no time.

Or how about all the other relevant cartoon characters we like? We have the most popular ones here.

Alas, although we looked very hard, we couldn’t find Santa Claus in this fairytale land. Soz, nothing we can do.

Maybe we should ask those marketing people at the back stage? See, they are still busy planning. There’s still time till the big day, right?

Actually we admire this Christmas fairytale castle so much, we have even dug out some news for you. Curious to know who is the boss of this fairytale land of Hello Kitties?

Well out of this group of impressive marketing genius, guess who is the boss?

You’re right.

The Lady.

It has to be her. Now we understand — errr the PINK.

So what is NEXT? We’re a bit disoriented after all these pink. Haven’t see this much pink since Miss D was 5.

Gosh, time flies by so quickly!

How about a bit black and white? Our eyes need some rest after all these hello kitty…

This is more like our style. Feel better now? How about a bit more color, like RED? After all it is Christmas season we are in. Be sensible.

What? This is not sensible enough for you? Are you a 5 years old?

OK, OK, admittedly it’s a bit crazy. Christmas underwear? Not allowed here. After all this is a family blog. We want to set good examples for our kids, don’t we?

How about bring in some real Christmas magic? For that, we give you the magical moment! (with a price tag of RP32499.000, you will need to work out how much it is by yourself, you’re on your own on this one :D)

And just for our record, please don’t get Jakarta wrong. We have plenty Santa Claus here. We haven’t got the chance to show you any only because we are a bit dazzled by all the Hello Kitties we saw today. That’s all.

To end today’s show on a high note, we present you our very own Jakarta Santa Claus:

Umm… he looks pretty normal to us, just like any other Santa Claus you would have seen in any other cities around the world, what do you think?